Massimo Rossi, Design methods and tools: considerations on the revised Logframe presented in the EC PRAG

The EC published in July 2015 an updated Procedures and Practical Guide (PRAG) (European Commission, 15 July 2015).This Guide introduced a number of innovations in the Logical Framework Matrix (Logframe) without any consultation with the concerned actors, using, e-g., the capacity4dev or other on-line tools; and without any reference to methods as Project Cycle Management (PCM) that include Logical Framework Approach (LFA), or Results Based Management (RBM) or Managing for Development Results (MfDR). 

In addition to that, this decision was taken without a clear justification or rationale presented in the PRAG and, more in general, without the planned previous publication of an updated Project and Programmes Cycle Management (PPCM), replacing the present in-use PCM manual (European Commission, March 2004), and announced by the EC many times

The PRAG introduce a revised Logframe , but, shifting the focus from only one Project Purpose to multiple outcomes/specific objectives is not changing only a tool as the Logframe, but a method as the LFA, “coming back “ to the an over-ambitious design approach. This approach, with many possible specific objectives, and related many problems to be addressed, was abandoned by the EC in the first PCM manual (EC, 1993), and by other Donors and Agencies, based on evidence of risks of failure related to over-ambitious projects sand programmes..

The aim of the present article is to contribute to the clarification on the innovations introduced by the new  PRAG, and more in general, to the improvement of methods and tools for PPCM.